This year, the direction of spiritual growth for the NPAC family is this:

     Discerning God’s works in your daily life and share the stories…

    Having experienced God’s guidance, grace and love in our daily life, will we give thanks to God?

    After giving thanks, we also need to properly “file” the experience. The best way to “file” this would be to share it with others. Have you ever had the experience that every time you are to give a testimony, you could only recall your conversion testimony years ago but not how you have experienced God recently? It is quite likely that it is not because you do not have recent experiences. It is just that you have not “filed” them properly. Unrecounted experiences fade as time goes by. It would also not be easy for you to remember how God has walked with you as He always does.

   In life’s stormy seasons, God certainly has His will and works. If we can clearly discern God’s guidance and how He steps into our situations, it will help us face what is before us. 2 Corinthians 2:14 says: “But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere.” We need to discern the guidance and works of God and “file” them – to share His grace and love with others more.

   We “discern” so we know we are experiencing God’s works. Of course, we cannot be too far-fetched and attribute all our experiences to the works of God. To “discern” means to distinguish with wisdom which are the works of God’s hands. What are the instances in which God is revealing His will? One yardstick for “discernment” is to ask: What did God say? Fundamentally, we need to know God’s character and standards through His revelation of Himself and the early commandments He proclaimed. After the Israelites were rescued from Egypt and had experienced God’s mighty deeds, God proclaimed the Ten Commandments to them at Mount Sinai. Through the commandments, the people of God were able to know God, how to fear Him and get wisdom for daily life.

   Talking about the “Ten Commandments,” people usually think of a series of “you shall not do this; you shall not do that” kind of prohibitions.

   The literal translation of the “Ten Commandments” from the original language is really “Ten Words.” These ten words or statements are filled with the will of God and represent the wisdom that the people of God need in life and in their daily encounters. It is like parents saying to a child: “Do not go into the kitchen.” Is this a harsh prohibition that restricts the child’s freedom of exploration? Certainly not! It is love. In the parents’ hearts, they do not want the child to trespass and get an accident. It is because a serious injury will affect the child’s freedom in life and activity in the rest of his life.

   Proverbs says: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (9:10). In this first quarter, we will review these “Ten Words,” to know the commands from God Himself and discern His guidance for us in our daily life. This will help us further understand His heart and experience His enduring grace and love.